Improvement in clothes-pounders



S. REA. Clothes-Founder.

Patented Dec. 30, 1879.

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WMQJM MWW WASHINGTON n O UNITED Arne PATENT OFFICE.

SAMPSON REA, OF URBANA, ILLINOIS.

IMPROVEMENT IN CLOTHES-PO'IJNDERS.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 223,167, dated December 30, 1879 application filed May 6, 1879.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, SAMPSON BEA, of Urbana, Uhampaign county, State of Illinois, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Clothes-Founders; and I hereby declare the same to be fully, clearly, and exactly described as follows, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, in which Figure 1 is a vertical central sectional View, and Fig. 2 a bottom plan, of the device.

My invention relates to that class of clothesponnders in which a cylindrical body containing a normally-retracted piston is brought down upon the clothes to be washed. The piston being depressed, the air is driven out from the cylinder, and as the piston rises the water and suds follow it into the cylinder, passing through the clothes and cleansing them.

Now, in this class of pounders it has been found necessary to make the piston comparatively loose in the cylinder in order to enable the spring to retract it with sufficient rapidity, and of course this looseness is not compatible with a water-tight fit of the piston within the cylinder. As a consequence, some water and suds do pass the piston, and are splashed about from the top of the pounder, greatly to the annoyance and inconvenience of the person using it. This it is the main de sign of my invention to obviate.

In the accompanying drawings, Ais thebody of the pounder, truly cylindrical in form, constructed, preferably, of nickel-plated sheet metal, and having a circumferential flange at the bottom, where the cylinder is closed by a grating, 12, having radial arms I), to prevent the entrance of the clothes into the cylinder. At the top is a similar grating, c, to which is attached a tube, 0, carrying a bell-shaped cover, 0, projecting to or beyond the edges of the cylinder. Through this tube passes freely the piston-rod B, carrying the spring 0 and piston to, these parts being of the usual or ordin-ary construction, and subserving the common functions.

It will be observed that all water and suds which would otherwise be squirted and splashed through the grating c are received by the bell O, whence they are shed back into the tub.

The flange a incloses a body of air, which forms a cushion, as it were, for the pounder, and gives it a broad and yielding bearing on the clothes, preventing them from being cut by the edges of the pounder.

Inasmuch as it may become necessary to remove one of the gratings to renew the pistonpacking as it wears out, I make one of them with a circumferential groove, (1, into which the sheet metal of the cylinder is readily punched, as shown in Fig. 1.

While holding the grating strongly in place, this construction admits of its ready extraction when required.

I am aware that a shield to shed the splash is not broadly new in clothes-pounders, and such I do not claim.

Whatl claim is-- In combination with the cylindrical body A, having gratings b c, the piston and rod, and bell -shaped cap (3, rigidly attached to the pounder, as set forth.

W'itness my hand.

SAMPSON REA.

Witnesses:

ANDREW ONEILL, JOHN COLEMAN. 

